"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the
animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel
nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest
lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen."
Samuel Adams, (1722-1803)

Many
of your fans are opposed to such a view [on same sex marriage] and feel
it has no place in a sport that is strictly for pride, entertainment
and excitement. I believe Mr. Ayanbadejo should concentrate on football
and steer clear of dividing the fan base.I am requesting that you take the necessary action, as a National
Football League Owner, to inhibit such expressions from your employees
and that he be ordered to cease and desist such injurious actions. I
know of no other NFL player who has done what Mr. Ayanbadejo is doing.

Ayanbadejo responded
to the news on Twitter, saying “Football is just my job it’s not who I
am. I am an American before anything. And just like every American I
have the right to speak!!!” He then told the team’s website,
“For him to be a delegate, I was kind of shocked that he would want to
silence me and tell me to stick to football in a free country. People
have died to have those rights to be able to voice those opinions – no
matter what their opinions are.”The Ravens, for their part, say they plan to respond to Burns, and Ravens President Dick Cass told the site,
“We support Brendon’s right to freedom of speech under the First
Amendment.” According to Ayanbadejo, Cass also expressed his personal
support. “Dick personally told me, ‘We’re not an organization that
discriminates,’” he told the site.Minnesota Vikings punter Chris Kluwe took to Twitter last night to express his disgust for Burns’ letter in a series of posts:

Holy crap. I leave Twitter for a couple hours and I come back to find this garbage?
This guy is literally an asshole.The only way I can fathom spewing that
type of shit out of your mouth is if your colon reversed flow and you
vomited actual fecal matter. And yes, I’m referring to the politician,
though to call him that denigrates the few politicians that still
deserve the name. It honestly baffles me that in this day and age,
someone can think stifling another’s right to free speech is somehow ok.
There’s not a lot that gets me seriously angry, but that’s one of the
few things on the list. Demand better from your government. Demand
better from yourself.

Today, Kluwe expanded on his thoughts in an open letter to Burns
published on the sports site Deadspin in which he castigated the
politician for attempting to curtail Ayanbadejo’s free speech rights and
Burns’ ahistorical analysis that sports players do not get involved in
civil rights issues before getting more scatological.

If gay marriage becomes legal, are you worried that all
of a sudden you’ll start thinking about penis? “Oh shit. Gay marriage
just passed. Gotta get me some of that hot dong action!” Will all of
your friends suddenly turn gay and refuse to come to your Sunday Ticket
grill-outs? (Unlikely, since gay people enjoy watching football too.)I can assure you that gay people getting married will have zero
effect on your life. They won’t come into your house and steal your
children. They won’t magically turn you into a lustful cockmonster. They
won’t even overthrow the government in an orgy of hedonistic debauchery
because all of a sudden they have the same legal rights as the other 90
percent of our population—rights like Social Security benefits, child
care tax credits, Family and Medical Leave to take care of loved ones,
and COBRA healthcare for spouses and children.

Kluwe’s postscript read, “I’ve also been vocal as hell about the
issue of gay marriage so you can take your ‘I know of no other NFL
player who has done what Mr. Ayanbadejo is doing’ and shove it in your
close-minded, totally lacking in empathy piehole and choke on it.
Asshole.”